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A fascinating exploration of the rhetoric of "decline" and appeal to a mythical better past that was used and weaponized by politicians in Rome as early as the 2nd century BC, and throughout the next 1500 years.

While other historians have (not without justifications, I think), drawn parallels between the collapse of the Roman Republic into authoritarian government due to institutional deadlock, and the risks facing the US political system, which was consciously modeled on the same institutions, Watts makes the interesting point that Making Rome Great Again was also a perennial promise in Roman politics, typically appealing to a largely invented past.

Some other food for thought was how we think about the historical reputation of emperors — how much is determined on whether their successors and their court historians saw it useful to praise them, or to blame them (the latter often if the new emperor had risen to power by violent means). As an example, Watts points out that by any objective measure, the rule of e.g. Marcus Aurelius was not a particularly prosperous time for Rome.